oldacura

So - at the risk of exposing my ignorance here:

The default assignment for the left (front) Di2 shifter is OPPOSITE that of Shimano STI front shifters?

If someone had never used STI, this assignment might make sense: Little lever goes to a higher gear and big lever goes to a lower gear. But if one's brain it trained to accommodate what is really going on with a mechanical cable, this can't happen with the left (front) STI shifter.

Maybe that is why I was constantly shifting the wrong way.

Paul J

I always think about the small levers takes the chain to a smaller cog or chain ring and the bigger to bigger. The only thing that can get confusing is that the smaller chain ring is lower gear and smaller cog is higher gear with the big levers the exacted opposite. :-)

PaulGrun

I now have our tandem configured to work exactly the same as "manual" STI - the big lever on each side pulls the cable, the small lever releases cable. Pulling cable means that the chain goes from a smaller cog or chainring to a bigger one. I set it up that way because my brain is used to thinking about what is going on mechanically with traditional, mechanical shifting, whether STI or my familiar barcons. Same thing with the Campy shifters on my single bike - the lever pulls cable to drag the chain "uphill", pressing the release button releases some cable. It's just easier for me, and therefore more natural and automatic, to think about pulling cable and releasing cable. That's just me.
I honestly don't recall how the levers were set up when we first got the bike, nor do I know what the default Shimano factory settings are. All I can say for sure is that when we first got the bike, I had to think hard about which lever was doing what and it wasn't intuitive to my brain. I left it that way for a while to see if my brain would adjust, but eventually re-programmed the levers to mimic standard STI.
Life is good!

Msteven 

[QUOTE=Alan_F;21830484].... "Having said that, I also modified the Di2 button function, but my reason for doing so was that my primary single bike has ETap (with sequential shift active) and I like the simplicity of 'left hand easier, right hand harder - front shifts automatic'. The tandem has XTR Di2 with effective chainrings of 26/42/56 and an 11-40 cassette."

Alan - found your post with the quote above from 2020. I am running the same XTR 3x11 set up, but your front chainring range seems quite large with 30 teeth between high and low @ 56-42-26. I have been searching for a combination of chainrings and cogs that gives us more top end and keeps the current low end 30f x 42r.
were you able to successfully run a longer chain with the 56t chainring? we have a 52/39/30 and 11-42 and the system seems maxed out.
thanks,
Mark

Alan_F

[QUOTE=Msteven;22053517]The key word there is 'effective'. It is a DaVinci and the rings are physically 28/21/13, so as far as the front derailleur is concerned the jumps are 7 and 8 teeth for a total of 15 from top to bottom. One of the biggest advantages of the DaVinci system (IMHO) is the ability to run ridiculously wide gearing ranges while maintaining excellent shifting performance.

Chilepines

I see that the Calfee has an Ultegra RD shifting a 46 tooth cassette with a Road Link. And using up 47 tooth capacity (12 front, 35 rear). Both are WAY beyond what Shimano says Ultegra can handle, but I'm assuming it shifts well.
There are a lot of tests online showing that you can go way past rated capacity for Shimano, but I have not found anything similar for SRAM AXS systems. Anyone with experience in how far you can max out a 2X AXS rear derailleur? I want to be able to run a 42 tooth cassette with 46/30 crank.

ferengii

[/QUOTE] ...but had grown weary of the potential difficulties and stress ("will they take it this time? how much are they going to charge us?") associated with traveling with a full-sized uncoupled tandem. (Our particular horror story occurred in the Prague airport, checking in to a Lufthansa flight.)[/QUOTE]

Funny you should mention traveling with a tandem and a Lufthansa flight in Prague. We bike toured on our own across Germany to Prague, where we flew back home via Lufthansa with our coupled tandem in two bike cases. We’ve always read that if asked about the contents of the bike cases to just say “bike parts” to minimize the risk of being asked to pay an additional bike handling fee (even though each bike case is below size & weight maximums for free travel).
At check-in, when casually asked if we had a good trip, my wife enthusiastically said we had a wonderful time bike touring! The clerk looked closely at the cases and then back at at us, confirmed that we were riding bikes, and clearly trying to decide whether to charge a bicycle handling fee. At that point, I told her what a wonderful and beautiful country she lived in and that the people were so nice and friendly (all true!). After an awkward silence, in a very friendly voice, she said, “I’m glad you enjoyed your holiday. I hope you will return again!” The additional cost was averted.

act0fgod

No experience with AXS but run SRAM E-Tap 11 speed on one of ours and have run 52-36 with an 11-40 (with road link). The front chainrings didn't shift perfect (on a triple spider setup with a bash guard) but the rear derailleur was pretty good. Currently we're running it with a 50-36 (same spider but put in some spacers) and 9-34 (no road link) and it is pretty darn good.

Both setups are out of SRAM spec.